Are we living in a day and age of innocence? Ask most people and the common answer will undoubtedly be “Yes, of course.” In fact, I, too, would say we do. The innocence I am thinking of, however, is probably far different from the type of innocence you have in mind right now. I am convinced that we live in a day and age of pervasive pseudo-innocence. Guilty men and women live and act as if they are 100% guiltless. With an aura of piety they parade around as if they do no wrong. Every angry outburst, every “white” lie is someone else’s fault or justified. They are innocent, but only in their own depraved minds. Of course Paul says in Romans 3:9-12 as he draws from Psalm 14 “For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one, no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’” (italics mine) Did you catch that? No matter what you may think of yourself, you stand before God a guilty man or woman. In fact, we all do. Far from professing our innocence we must do something far more radical.
We need to proclaim our guilt before God. We must acknowledge that we have no righteousness of our own. The beauty of doing so is two-fold. First, we say exactly what God says. Our opinions of ourselves are no longer just our opinions. They are truthful statements because they mirror what is said by the very Truthgiver. Second, we ought to realize we need righteousness because we don’t possess it. Herein lies the beauty of Paul’s rhetoric. No one is good (Romans 3) but there is One who is (Romans 4). “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’” (Romans 4: 2-8) For all those who have trusted in Christ, they don’t stand before God with their own righteousness, they stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ!
Such a great undeserved transfer (our sin transferred to One who was sinless and Christ’s righteousness transferred to many who were unrighteous) ought to lead to an attitude of love and hate. Love for God and our neighbor. Hatred of sin and its vileness. Most of the time we have no problem seeing the validity of the first truth but abhor the second. Are you a hater of sin? Before you answer this question, think hard about this follow up question: Does repentance characterize your life? Herein lies the reason we live in desperate days. There are many who claim to love God but repentance does not characterize their lives. In hopes of helping those struggling to understand the nature and necessity of repentance I recently preached on this topic while my pastor was on vacation. Though a hard pulpit to fill (my pastor is an excellent preacher whose sermons you can access at http://shanekastler.typepad.com/), I hope that my sermon will bless the brethren. You can hear it by clicking here: http://shanekastler.typepad.com/Will_Douglas_Psalm_51.mp3
